Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro announced on
Sunday a 50% hike in the minimum wage and pensions, the fifth
increase over the last year, to help shield workers from the
world's highest inflation rate.

The measure puts the minimum monthly salary at 40,683 bolivars —
about $60 at the weakest exchange level under the state's
currency controls, or $12 at the black-market rate.

The minimum wage comes with an additional food bonus of
about $93, which will not change.

"To start the year, I have decided to raise salaries and
pensions," he said on his weekly TV and radio program.

"In times of economic war and mafia attacks ... we must protect
employment and workers' income," added Maduro, who has now
increased the minimum wage by a cumulative 322 percent since
February 2016.

Low prices for Venezuela's key export, oil, have done much
to weaken the economy and limit government spending. Now in its
third year of a deep recession, the country is facing severe shortages of food, medicine,
and basic household goods.

The 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez attributes Venezuela's
three-year recession, soaring prices, and product shortages to a
plunge in global oil prices since mid-2014 and an "economic war"
by political foes and hostile businessmen.

But critics say his incompetence, and 17 years of failed
socialist policies, are behind Venezuela's economic mess.

Opposition
supporters take part in a rally against President Nicolas
Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, October 26,
2016.Thomson
Reuters

Venezuela's inflation hit 181% in 2015, according to official
data, though opponents say the true figure was higher. There is
no official data for 2016, but most economists think inflation at
least doubled from the previous year.

Both the government and opposition have been accused of
lacking the "sincere will" to engage in dialogue,
and Diego Padron, president of the Venezuelan
Episcopal Council, singled out the government for
criticism.

"In Venezuela’s history no other government has made the
people suffer so much as the current government," he said on January 7.